The beleaguered handset maker Nokia is setting itself up for what it hopes will be a lean and mean relaunch in the U.S. later this year: it has finally admitted that it will not launch its newest N9 device--the first and possibly only one based on the MeeGo platform--and that it plans to end sales of its Symbian-based devices as well as low-end Series 40 handsets, as it prepares for a generation of devices it is developing using Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform.

But oh well, remember that first update to Windows Phone 7 that did provide no new functionality but broke half of the phones running it? It is not 10 years ago.

You mean Samsung - the scumbag organisation that told a carrier they had no intention at all at any time to provide software updates for their phones in favour of FORCING hardware upgrades on end users? that scumbag organisation who produced a Windows Phone 7 device that ranged from a bricked phone all the way to repeated rebooting after the Nodo was released by Microsoft. Yes, I do remember that experience but I was smart enough NOT to purchase an Samsung device - I owned a LG Windows Phone 7 device and everything work perfect (I've since moved to a iPhone 4 because Microsoft hasn't addressed compatibility issues between 64bit Mac OS X and their 'Windows Phone 7 Connector' that they provide for Mac OS X users to synchronise their phone).

Time will tell whether Microsoft really learned their lessons. Nokia takes a very high risk.

I hope the best for them. Competition is always a good thing.

I do hope that Microsoft has learned their lesson - to kick Samsung to the curb as fast as possible and make sure you choose good hand set vendors from day one such as HTC, LG and others with good reputations who don't have scumbag customer policies (as I mentioned in the above reply to the first paragraph). So yes, Microsoft need to choose their partners well and resist the temptation to allow any old vendor to use their software or otherwise they'll (Microsoft) be the ones who get the blame and not the hand set vendor itself.